Medical image data, for example, is typically obtained in the form of slices through various types of imaging modalities. These slices are then stacked to form a three-dimensional (“3D”) volume. To extract a 3D region of interest from a 3D volumetric data set is still a challenging task. The main difficulty is that there is no robust automatic algorithm that can handle all the different situations and applications. When automatic methods fall short, expert human intervention is generally required for extracting desired areas or regions of interest.
Working on 2D slices is one way to explore the 3D volume from medical imaging modalities. An interactive 2D-segmentation tool, which has been referred to as an intelligent scissors, facilitates user delineation of 2D regions of interest. Although an intelligent scissors is a very convenient tool for a 2D slice, it is not very appealing if a user needs to go through hundreds or thousands of slices. Sometimes significant features are not revealed in the direction of the original scanned slices, but show more clearly in other directions. It would be beneficial for user interactive efficiency and shape fidelity if the user had tools to outline the significant features along that more revealing direction.
To accommodate this kind of approach, there should be a way for users to switch the slices to any arbitrary direction or angle and outline region of interest. The interface of most of the current medical image systems is based on several view windows of 2D images that slice through the 3D volume in different directions. This interface is usually accompanied by a 3D view window that can visualize the 3D results of the operations, but which has no editing capability. This kind of working environment is generally awkward because the user needs to jump back-and-forth between the 3D view and the 2D views, and has to mentally correlate the current 2D slices in the 3D space.
Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method capable of permitting users to apply 2D segmentation tools on 2D slices directly in a 3D environment. The present disclosure addresses these and other issues.